Many plays call for elaborate battle scenes. This can prove challenging for community theaters that don't have much money to spend on explosions, weaponry and period-appropriate costumes. Fortunately, with just a bit of creativity community theaters can stage effective battle scenes without spending much money.
Lighting is the key. By flashing red, yellow, green or orange lights across the stage as characters run with prop rifles and other weapons, directors can recreate the sense of chaos that most dramatic battle scenes evoke. By playing recorded sound effects of cannons, rifle fire and other artillery, directors can add to the moment. For true drama, directors can shut all lights off and merely play the recorded sounds of battle. Done properly, this can create an effectively eerie mood.
Your play may call for a ghost or two. Some of the most famous plays ever, including Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, certainly do. Fortunately, creating realistic ghosts doesn't require much money.
For male ghosts, take old suit coats, rip them and coat them with flour or fluorescent white or green paint. This will create a suitably dingy and ghostly look. For female ghosts, use an old wedding dress or formal dress that you bought at a garage or estate sale and give it the same treatment as the male ghosts' suits.
Finally, add fake cobwebs, paint your ghosts' faces white, green, yellow or some other appropriately ghoulish color and send them on stage. Make sure to dim the lighting for a better overall effect.
If your performance calls for a dream sequence, it's time again to rely on lighting. If your character is suffering a drug- or alcohol-fueled dream, you can flash strobe lights in blue, red, green or bright purple across the stage. Combine it with psychedelic music and you easily evoke the feeling of a fever dream.
If your character's dreams are more prosaic, simply dim the lights until only a single spotlight rests on your main character. The audience will then see that this particular dream is emanating from the character.
Costumes can help, too. If your character encounters fellow actors in the dream sequence, make sure that these actors are wearing flimsy white clothing. Dust their hair with white. Shine bright yellow lights on them. Anything that you can do to emphasize the ethereal nature of a dream will create a big impact without costing a lot.